Garment finishing hanger and loader therefor

ABSTRACT

A hanger for fitting under flexure within an open top waist type garment, such as a pair of pants or a skirt, and for suspending the garment in a waist open tubular manner, whereby the entire garment both inside and out held as such can be finished with a single cycle in a box or tunnel type finisher using a conditioning fluid such as steam and a drying fluid such as heated air, and a device for flexing and holding the hanger in a flexed condition to allow quick and easy garment dressing on and/or garment removal from the hanger.

United States Patent 1 Maez et al.

[ GARMENT FINISHING HANGER AND LOADER THEREFOR [75] Inventors: Philhert Jay Maez; Richard D.

' Thompson; Michael G. Beeley, all of Salt Lake City, Utah [73] Assignee: McGraw-Edison Company, Elgin, 111. 22 Filed: Sept. 13, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 180,025

[52] US. Cl. 223/73 [51] Int. Cl. D06c 15/00 [58] Field of Search 223/95, 51, 57, 69-73,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,117,704 1/1964 McMillan 223/73 3,679,106 7/1972 North et al. 223/73 1 June 19, 1973 Primary Examiner-Geo. V. Larkin Attorney-Charles F. Lind 57 ABSTRACT A hanger for fitting under flexure within an open top waist type garment, such as a pair of pants or a skirt, and for suspending the garment in a waist open tubular manner, whereby the entire garment both inside and out held as such can be finished with a single cycle in a box or tunnel type finisher using a conditioning fluid such as steam and a drying fluid such as heated air, and a device for flexing and holding the hanger in a flexed condition to allow quick and easy garment dressing on and/or garment removal from the hanger.

4 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATENIEDJUM 9 ma INVENTORS1 PHILBERTJM MAEZ RICHARD D. THOMPSON MICHEAL G. BEELEY ATTY.

GARMENT FINISHING HANGER AND LOADER THEREFOR This invention broadly relates to and an object of this invention is to provide a means for holding a top open waist type garment in a waist open suspended manner, thereby allowing the garment as held in a box or tunnel type finisher to be subjected to a single finishing cycle with little or no required separate and/or additional touchup.

More limitedly, the invention relates to and an object of the invention is to providea hanger having opposite ends with friction grippers thereon which can beflexed to be generally vertical and restrained against the inside waist section of a garment for suspending the garment with the waist open and drawn tight, whereby conditioning fluid and drying air can migrate into the garment through the open waist section.

The invention further relates to and anobject of the invention is to provide a loader device for assisting an operator in lflexing and holding the hanger flexed for quick and easy garment loading on and/or unloading from the hanger.

These and other objects of thisinvention will be more fully understood and appreciated after referring to the following specification, the accompanying drawing forming a part thereof, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of the particular hanger flexing device shown with a hanger thereon flexed for placement of a garment on or for removal of a garment from the hanger;

FIG. 2 isa view similar to FIG. 1, except showing the device in its release position and the hanger thereon suspending the garment in question and holding tubularly open the upper open top waist portion of the garment;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view taken of the device in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a front elevational view similar to FIG. 2, except with the structure enlarged and broken away and showing details of construction; and

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of air circuitry suited for operating the hanger flexing device shown in the previous figures.

The disclosed hanger flexing device includes .a base 12 which supports a post 14, and a flexure head 16 is supported at the upper end of the post. The head 16 is designed to hold a hanger .18 of .a particular construction to be outlined and to flex it from its normal position to a strained position where the open top waist section of agarment 20 can be positioned over the ends of the hanger. The device isthen adapted to release the hanger to expand into the confines of the garment 20 whereupon the hanger canbe removed from the device while then holding the garment at the open waist section.

The particular hanger 18 has a generally conventional hook 22 which can be hung over a pipe or any other appropriate support (not shown). Secured to the lower stern part of the hook as by rivets 23 are a pair of shoulder elements24 each having a double curve from the stem including a convexly downward portion. 26 and a concavely downward portion 27. A crosselement 30 having a downwardly concave curve is secured at its oppositeends as by spot'welding .32 to the shoulder pieces. The tips' 34 of the shoulder pieces :are

tisol compound.

Each piece 24 and 30 is fabricated of a spring steel band so that repeated flexure of the same is possible without failure. The hanger preferably is coated with a plastic or is nickel or chrome plated to be rust resistant. The shoulder piece tips are preferably three-fourths inch or more wide to hold the tubular waist open in an elongated manner, and are separated when the hanger is unflexed by approximately .25 inches to be able to hold most garments even up to some 45 inch waist. With bands one-sixteenth X seven-eighths inch for the pieces 24 and 30, the hanger draws the waist band tight with a few pounds of tension even with only a few inches of flexure, while the arrangement of the cross element as a leaf type spring does not draw beyond 10 or 12 pounds force even with full flexure.

The particular hanger flexing device 10 has a pair of opposed plates or faces 36 where horizontally separated pins 38 extend from one face and are spaced apart sufficiently to receive the stem of the hanger 18, and a shouldered pin 40 is centered in general vertical .alignmentbelow these "pins'38 and is adapted when the hanger is unflexed to underlie and vertically suport the cross element 30. These pins 38 and 40 are stationary and are located to freely receive the hanger in its unflexed or natural configuration.

Also supported as on pivots 44 from the frame structure are apair of arms 46 where the end of each arm has a shouldered pin 48 overlying the shoulder piece 24 just slightly outside the connection 32 of the cross piece 30 to the shoulder piece 24. .Apower cylinder '50 connected relative to "the head 16 has a rod 54 which is connected at its free end at pivot pin 56 to a 'pair of links 58 which in turn are connected at their opposite remote ends at pins 60 to the arms 46.

The arms and the power cylinder are shown in FIG. 4 in the uppermost or nonflexing position where the :hanger can be readily loaded on or removed from the pin arrangement 38 and 40 and where the arm pins 48 are clear of the hanger. As such, an operator can easily place hanger 18 on the device 10 with the cross element 30 vertically above and against the pin 40 and with the stem 23 located between the spaced pins 38. It is apparent that upon expansion of power cylinder 50 and the downward movement of the rod, the links .58

pivot the arms downwardly about the pins 44. The arm pins 48 initially engage the hanger and then flex the hanger until the end tips 34 are close to one another and are well within the normal opening of the waistof the garment 20 to be finished (see FIG. 1). A spring 62 confined between these links 58 serves to resist the contractingpivotal movement of the arms but the toggle type rotation of thelinksas the: rodpin 56 is moved downwardly easily overcomes the increasing force required to stretch the spring 62 and to flex the hanger.

It is contemplated that the power cylinder 50 is operated pneumatically and along'these lines an air line 64 is shown that passes through a conventional open-close three way valve 66 actuated by a foot pedal 68 pivoted on the base,where line'70 from the valve 66 passes initially through an adjustable pressure regulator or flow control device 72 before entering the power cylinder. The air power delivered to the power cylinder upon the foot pedal 68 being actuated is thus determined by the setting of the device 72,.and it'is adjusted to avoid rapid strikingof the arm *pins 48 against the hanger in initially flexing thehanger. Upon releasing the foot pedal, valve 66 vents the power cylinder to atmosphere out port 73. Knob 74 is used to adjust the control device 72.

Upon the operator depressing the foot pedal 68 the opened valve 66 admits air under pressure through the control device 72 to actuate the power cylinder 50 which in turn causes the downward pivoting of the arms 46 about the pivots 44. The pins 48 ultimately engage and flex the hanger to reduce the spacing between the hanger tips 34 to something like to 12 inches. The operator can then close the snap or button at the waist part of the garment and with the garment held by two hands can then easily fit the open top tubular waist section over the hanger tips 34 and release the foot pedal 68. This vents power cylinder 50 through the valve 66 and permits the hanger to unflex until it is restrained still partially flexed by the waist of the garment (FIG. 2). The arms 46 meanwhile continue upward until the arm pins 48 are spaced well above the constrained hanger shoulder portions. It is easy then for the operator to lift the hanger and garment held thereon from the device 10 particularly since the partial flexure of the shoulder pieces 24 and upward bowing of the cross element 30 reduce confinement between the pins 40 and the pin 38 to substantially less than before hanger flexure. The garment is held on the hanger with the waist drawn tight and open in an elongated manner.

It is to be understood that many garments manufac tured with fibers such as the polyester blends, wool blends, and even treated cotton, can be set in a wrinklefree permanent press type condition by the garment manufacturer with the proper use of temperatures and chemicals. It is then frequently possible after use to return the garment to its relatively wrinkle-free condition merely by relaxing the fibers with steam conditioning and air drying the relaxed fibers. This finishing is commonly performed for example, in finishers of the box type or the tunnel type where steam discharge conditions the fibers and heated air drys the garment.

Although such batch box or tunnel type garment finishers have long been available, waist type garments, such as pants, have typically not been finished in such finishers, but have been finished on a topper device at the waist and pocket area and on a conventional press at the leg areas.

The disclosed hanger having its ends bowed downward to within the waist part of the garment keeps the waist open and allows the finishing fluids from the batch box or tunnel type finisher to enter into the garment and circulate freely therein for complete exposure of the multiple ply fly and pocket areas of the garment. The disclosed hanger thus permits the finishing of a waist type garment in existing batch box or tunnel type finishers in the same manner and with the same effectiveness as a coat, dress, shirt or any other like garment. The disclosed hanger flexing device makes garment dressing on or removal from the hanger a relatively simple and easy task for high output production.

What is claimed is:

1. In combination, a hanger of the type having downwardly directed tip elements and spring structure connecting the tip elements to normally hold them apart while allowing contracting movement of the tip elements toward one another upon flexure of said connecting spring structure, whereby the secured top open tubular waist section of a garment can be fitted over the tip elements and the flexure of the spring structure released to expand the tip elements against and hold the garment waist section open thereby allowing the garment to be finished in a box or tunnel type finisher, and a hanger flexure device having a frame and means on the frame to support the hanger, deflecting means supported by the frame adapted to be moved between a first position clear of the hanger and a second first position against the hanger operable in the second position to flex the spring structure to contract the hanger tip elements to allow the garment waist section to be fitted over the end tips, and means to control the movement of the deflecting means between the first and second positions.

2. The combination according to claim 1, wherein the deflecting means includes a pair of arms pivoted to the frame, and means connected between the arms and the frame suitable upon actuation for shifting the arms between the first position clear of the hanger and the second position against the hanger spring structure.

3. The combination according to claim 2, wherein the means to control the movement of the deflecting means includes a pair of links connected to the arms and a power cylinder connected between the frame and the links, whereupon actuation of the power cylinder counterrotates the arms toward one another and flexes the spring structure.

4. A method of finishing a garment of the type having a tubular open top waist section, comprising the steps of securing the waist section to its open top tubular configuration, inserting into the-open top waist section a pair of end tips of a support hanger and allowing the end tips to be spring biased apart and against the waist section, the end tips having a width of the order of three-fourths inch and thereby holding the waist section open in a narrow rectangularly extended manner laterally of the garment and allowing the remainder of the garment to be suspended freely therebelow in a generally vertical orientation, thereafter in a box or tunnel type finisher and with the garment freely suspended as noted of conditioning the garment with steam or other conditioning fluid and then drying the garment by blowing hot air downwardly over the gar- 'ment and allowing some of the air to migrate into the open waist section thereof, and removing the garment from the support of the end tips after the garment is completely dried. 

1. In combination, a hanger of the type having downwardly directed tip elements and spring structure connecting the tip elements to normally hold them apart while allowing contracting movement of the tip elements toward one another upon flexure of said connecting spring structure, whereby the secured top open tubular waist section of a garment can be fitted over the tip elements and the flexure of the spring structure released to expand the tip elements against and hold the garment waist section open thereby allowing the garment to be finished in a box or tunnel type finisher, and a hanger flexure device having a frame and means on the frame to support the hanger, deflecting means supported by the frame adapted to be moved between a first position clear of the hanger and a second first position against the hanger operable in the second position to flex the spring structure to contract the hanger tip elements to allow the garment waist section to be fitted over the end tips, and means to control the movemEnt of the deflecting means between the first and second positions.
 2. The combination according to claim 1, wherein the deflecting means includes a pair of arms pivoted to the frame, and means connected between the arms and the frame suitable upon actuation for shifting the arms between the first position clear of the hanger and the second position against the hanger spring structure.
 3. The combination according to claim 2, wherein the means to control the movement of the deflecting means includes a pair of links connected to the arms and a power cylinder connected between the frame and the links, whereupon actuation of the power cylinder counterrotates the arms toward one another and flexes the spring structure.
 4. A method of finishing a garment of the type having a tubular open top waist section, comprising the steps of securing the waist section to its open top tubular configuration, inserting into the open top waist section a pair of end tips of a support hanger and allowing the end tips to be spring biased apart and against the waist section, the end tips having a width of the order of three-fourths inch and thereby holding the waist section open in a narrow rectangularly extended manner laterally of the garment and allowing the remainder of the garment to be suspended freely therebelow in a generally vertical orientation, thereafter in a box or tunnel type finisher and with the garment freely suspended as noted of conditioning the garment with steam or other conditioning fluid and then drying the garment by blowing hot air downwardly over the garment and allowing some of the air to migrate into the open waist section thereof, and removing the garment from the support of the end tips after the garment is completely dried. 